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Maedhros
Eldest son of Fëanor

Of all the sons of Fëanor, Maedhros probably presented the biggest conundrum. Some of his brothers were clearly bad, clearly not so bad, or rather indifferent, but Maedhros was less clear-cut. I knew I wasn't going to be able to present him as he was after his rather Prometheus-like suffering in Melkor's clutches (minus one hand), but even more than his father, he presented a character who was not clearly either a villain or a hero, or even an anti-hero. He obsessively pursued the Silmarils, driven by the Oath, but he also gave Fingolfin Kingship of the Noldor out of regret for past misdeeds (largely of Fëanor's, not his own) . Trying to get across that kind of a personality in the limitations of a Sim was no easy task!

So I decided to try for "noble," rather than "heroic," and hopefully, I succeeded. I went searching for a description of Maedhros and couldn't find anything terribly specific, so I opted to make him resemble his father. The eight-pointed silver star is mentioned as a device of the House of Fëanor. The heraldic device Tolkien drew for Fëanor would seem to incorporate that in a rather stylized fashion, but the images I've seen of it are a bit fuzzy and indistinct, too much so to use it as the basis for a more complex emblem. The two little stars at the temples of Maedhros' head are there as clips for a braided portion of the hair that goes in a loop from one side to the other around the back, and can be most clearly seen in the profile image on the right.

Maedhros with red hair
(skin only)

The reference to this particular detail exists only in one of the "History of Middle-earth" books, not in The Silmarillion itself, so you can take it or leave it as you will (I'd forgotten about it when I was working on this project, partly because the brain doesn't always want to hold onto all minute details, especially when it's coming down with what appears to be the flu. Don't even start bringing allergies into this). A lot of fans seem to like the idea of Maedhros being red-haired; personally, I have about as much liking for it as I do for the legions of red-haired heroines that abound in romance novels and stereotypical fantasies, but for the sake of completeness and for those who prefer it, here it is. I chose a dark rather than bright red for several reasons: 1). it clashed less with his red clothing, 2). it's the same color I gave Nerdanel, 3). it's less confusing when you're using both it and the more carrot-topped red I gave the twins, and 4). the nickname "Russandol" means more or less "copper-head," and copper is only that bright brassy color when it's been buffed to a high shine. In its more natural state, it's a red-brown, and that color worked pretty well even against the red. Not as well as the black, though. Ah, well.